Benefits of Kidney Donation to the Donor

For obvious reasons, most times we think of the benefit of transplantation we focus on its transformative impact on recipients. But donors too experience real, concrete benefits of donation. Donating to a spouse can allow for a return to work, for example. Donation is a personal choice that is not right for everyone, but no one wants to attend the funeral of someone they cared about and wonder if they could have done more.

Benefits reported in the scholarly literature include:

Deep gratification in helping another person.

Desire to improve the recipient’s quality of life and health

Improving their own quality of life

Avoiding the loss of the loved one

Improving the quality of life for the recipient

Increased self-esteem

Improved relationship with the recipient

Positively influencing the lives of family and loved ones.

Perhaps for these reasons, studies consistently find that only a tiny minority of donors (less than 5%) regret having donated.